Features

A year after Alabama’s Gulf Shores was visited by the worst accidental oil spill in U.S. history, locals say the coast is now clear. Case closed?
Story and photos by Lisa Singh
Peering through a pair of MacArthur aviator shades,…

Story and photos by Cindy Murphy-Tofig
Is it possible to go to Hilton Head and not play one of the islands 24 golf courses?
Yes, and you can still have a fantastic trip.
While still a popular golf vacation spot,…

Story by Hope S. Philbrick
With new destinations awaiting exploration, some places get tossed into the “been there, done that” pile. But New Orleans, Louisiana lures me back again and again.
New Orleans feeds the soul like nowhere else. The…

By Hope S. Philbrick
“The hills are alive with the sound of music” sounded silly to me. While I appreciate a good musical and just about anything Julie Andrews belts out, the words didn’t make sense: It’s not the Alps…

By Stacey Dougherty
Photos by Sammy Boykin
Back in December 2004, as he ascended to street level from the underground depths of Penn Station and was greeted by Seventh Avenue and New York City for the very first time, Sammy…

By Hope S. Philbrick
The best antidote for fighting off feelings of “bah-humbug” would have to be a trip to Hamburg, Germany for an infusion of genuine Christmas cheer. The festive atmosphere there, emanating from numerous Christmas Markets, is sure…

Story and photos by Clint Williams
Orange County in Southern California is a place you don’t know much about and that’s too bad. Los Angeles County to the north has, well, Los Angeles and all the cultural icons associated with…

By Hope S. Philbrick
When I recently stepped aboard the Carnival Fantasy for a six-day cruise sailing from Charleston, South Carolina to the Bahamas and Key West, Florida, I was exhausted. I’d been traveling for 12 weeks, returning home only…

Story and photos by John Griffin
When I was a child, my father would occasionally sing that old ballad, “Shenandoah, I long to see you …” I could hear the words again echoing across the years when a friend invited…